1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the display of multiple pages of information within a computing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to controllably displaying multiple pages of information obtained over a network such as the Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers or electronic devices which access information over the network, such as the Internet, generally utilize a software interface which permits the user to direct the operation of the computer in obtaining information from the network. In the case of the Internet, a network browser is conventionally utilized as an interface to display information derived from the network on the user's computer. Information is provided by various "web sites" from various locations in the network. This information can include text, graphics, sound files, video files, and other data. Users access this information by selecting links, such as HTML hyper links, which load URL (uniform resource locator) addresses into the browser and cause the browser to fetch the desired information from the network.
Conventional browser programs generally utilize a single document display method, wherein for each document loaded from the network into the browser, the previously displayed document is erased from the display and the new document is displayed therein.
Conventional browsers also do not permit the user to easily nor conveniently display simultaneously multiple documents obtained from different locations within the network. In particular, conventional browsers do not allow a user to selectively create a second browser display page by following a link contained in the first browser display page, without overwriting the contents of the first browser display page.